FORMER Wellington School student Mr Justice Sweeney is one of five judges responsible for deciding the fate of a Royal Marine sergeant jailed for the battlefield killing of a Taliban insurgent.

The judge, the former Sir Nigel Sweeney, will help rule on whether it is right that Alexander Blackman, from Taunton, is serving a life sentence for murder.

The special court hearing Blackman’s appeal will be presided over by the country’s top judge, Lord chief Justice Lord Thomas, at the Royal Courts of Justice in London on February 8 and 9.

Blackman, 42, was jailed for life at a court martial for shooting a fatally wounded Taliban fighter in Helmand Province, Afghanistan, in 2011. His original minimum sentence of ten years was later reduced to eight years.

The Criminal Cases Review Commission decided last month that fresh evidence means there is ‘a real possibility’ his conviction could be quashed.

Next month’s hearing hinges on psychiatrist reports concluding that Blackman was suffering from battlefield stress at the time of the killing and a charge of manslaughter may have been more appropriate.